Cringely: iPhone name, network will change

updated 09:25 pm EST, Fri January 12, 2007

by MacNN Staff

Cringely on the iPhone

Noted PBS commentator Robert Cringely has chimed in with his opinion on the Apple iPhone, as well as the trademark dispute with Cisco Systems. Cringely asks why Apple failed to conclude talks with Cisco before moving forward, noting that the latter had no choice but to sue if it wanted to defend itself against future infringements. The situation is compounded by the fact that Apple did change the name of the iTV, enabling the company to avoid potential legal troubles with Elgato Systems, makers of the similar EyeTV.

The commentator asks why Apple would knowingly challenge a larger company while side-stepping a smaller one, surmising that the move is a calculated publicity stunt designed to earn a great amount of media attention without paying for the equivalent advertising campaign.

Cringely also wonders about the choice of Cingular as the carrier partner. The company's 2G network can't maximize the potential of the iPhone, he says, and the 3G network features Cingular Video, a download service that uses RealVideo. Since Apple would prefer customers to use QuickTime and iTunes, the 3G network will go unused until Cingular caves in or loses the partnership.

Apple's move may be a direct attempt at domination of cellphone content, Cringely surmises, forcing a major carrier to switch formats if it wants to hold on to a lucrative product. When the Cingular exclusive ends, subsequent carriers may need to support iTunes to retain any popularity.

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...and Cringely's not being clear about Cingular video being Real based. Data is data, and I can and do stream QuickTime videos to my PowerBook while tethered to my 3.5G phone. In other words, the Real format is only important if you want to use Cingular's WAP video applications, but there's no reason why the iPhone has to use those apps in the first place.

Maybe Cringely doesn't read what's going on. There are also suggestions that Apple, while talking to Cisco for YEARS (not just a few days) before the launch, discovered Cisco may not even own the damned mark. Perhaps better than paying Cisco millions of dollars?

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=236a

Not surprising that a PBS commentator gets confused trying to replace Masterpiece Theater reporting with technology news. But also it's clear his producers don't spend time researching.

A good trademark is one that is "arbitrary and fanciful" which iPhone certainly isn't! Google could come out with a gPhone and Microsoft an mPhone and there's nothing Apple could do about it. That's why the iPod name is so good because before the iPod, "pods" were only associated with peas and body snatchers.

I fully expect that Apple will eventually ship the product with something they can easily trademark and defend in court, like iPod Phone or iVIP (Video, Internet, Phone)...hey, that's not bad...

Think about how McDonalds has stopped everyone from using MC in front of their names. Stopped them cold.

This is a trademark that can stick. You're mistaking adoption of a brand with a trademark. In the latter, neither you nor I know how well the name will stick, but I think given the fact it's Apple, a marketing machine that knows it's stuff, it likely will.

Let the m's, a's and z's all have as much fun as they want--they won't want to play in that sandbox unless they have a better product.

Im willing to donate my name to Apple if they want to use it.... Nobody on Earth has claimed it yet besides me. I am making an honest offer here Apple dudes... You can save some serious coin!
posted by iwasiphone

Another possibility is that Apple's stealth marketing machine WANTED Cisco to sue. It makes for GREAT headlines!

News of Apple's iPhone dominated the news EVERYWHERE this week. There was nowhere you could turn without some reference to it! That's phenomenal marketing!

Some of the negative commentary I think came as a result of iPhone absolutely burying news from the Consumer Electronics Show. It was nearly invisible.

SO, we saw the iPhone on technology pages, financial pages, front pages, news and lifestyle TV programs. Add news of a lawsuit 6 MONTHS before the thing is even available for and you create incredible buzz!

Apple used it first, legally, illegally, they don't care. Even if they change the name, anything Cisco comes out with will never be considered a real iPhone by the masses and will be panned. Jobs is a opportunist, showman and above all a steamroller, they have plenty of cash for legal shenanigans, anyone who knows Apple's history knows its Job's way or the highway and he knows how to grab the headlines! He has the products that back him up. Whatever happensto it it will be the coolest of all the PDA/Phone/Player/thingies out there and everyone with or without a brain will eat them up. Cingular is going to be AT&T again real soon so the names are unimportant and if they don't produce the marketshare he likes he'll be on other carriers in a heartbeat. No amount of whining will change anything, sit back and enjoy the show.

When did Apple change the name of iTV? As far as I can see, they never had a product called iTV, just like they never had a product called Puma or Cheetah. Code names do not equal a product name. Now as for why they introduced a product named iPhone, I would imagine they think they have a very good chance of overturning the trademark. It should be more interesting.

faceplant, if you're going to comment and use legal terminology and speculation, please get it right.

>Cisco had a copyright in the name iPhone,

Cisco has a trademark on it, not a coyright.

> and I would imagine that years ago when some
> guy did that in anticipation of what Apple would
> do years in the future, well, I bet Cisco will buy
> him lunch. A person with that much forethought
> is worth his weight in gold.

Unfortunately, there is no such person. Cisco *acquired* the iPhone trademark when they purchased a company called 'infogear', who had a product called 'iphone' (however shortlived it was) back in 1996. Cisco acquired infogear in 2000, and then proceeded to do nothing with the trademarked name until it expired and was considered abandoned (anytime between 2003 to 2005/6). The rushed release of Cisco/Linksys' iPhone line was just a failed attempt to recapture that trademark, though at that time it had already lapsed, and courts will consider it abandoned.

i think CISCO sued for the publicity. They released a product in a lukewarm market, but now EVERYONE knows they too have something called an iPhone and it makes people get online and check out their product.

The other thing, I don't think Cingular has much to say about the iPhone operation HOPEFULLY. More like a exotic sports car doesn't care what road or race track it's on... it just knows the pedal makes it go and it's spewing dust as it charges down the road.

How can Cingular think it will make more money pushing its own WAP and download service (including all of the marketing costs and headaches) when they would make a TON by letting Apple do it all and just taking some off the top!! Now maybe that is their ploy all along and they are asking more than Steve is willing to pay, but it is just as likely that they, like Verizon, are too wedded to corporate ego more than profit.

You would think a TV comentator woud know the difference between EyeTV and iTV. The problem with Apple's iTV was probably not EytTV at all, but the fact that there is a Canadian television network named iTV.

iTV changed names because El Gato who makes a video recorder that hooks up to tv coaxial or composite video and records on your computer via USB is called EyeTv. Apple is going to be allowed to called it's phone the iPhone! Whether apple wins or not, they still will make 100,000,0000x more off their product than Cisco will EVER make on a VOIP/skype phone. People just aren't buying these things. regular expandable portable 2.4gh wireless phones are much cheaper provide the same features.

Robert X. Cringely is the pen name of both technology journalist Mark Stephens and a string of writers for a column in InfoWorld, the weekly computer trade newspaper published by IDG.

Stephens as Cringely
Stephens was the third author to contribute to Infoworld under the Cringely pseudonym, the first two being Rory J. O'Connor and then Laurie Flynn. During his lengthy tenure (1987-1995), the character of Cringely changed dramatically (morphing from a private eye type to a slick, womanizing tech insider), and became an increasingly popular tech pundit after authoring the book Accidental Empires: How the Boys of Silicon Valley Make Their Millions, Battle Foreign Competition and Still Can't Get a Date (1992, ISBN 0-88730-855-4).
After a financial disagreement in 1995, Stephens was dismissed from Infoworld, and was promptly sued by IDG to prevent him from continuing to use the Cringely trademark. A settlement was reached out of court that allowed him to use the name, so long as he did not contribute to competing technology magazines. As a result, Stephens' writing as Robert X. Cringely regularly appears in publications such as The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Upside, Success, and Worth. Stephens has also appeared as Cringely in two documentaries based on his writings: Triumph of the Nerds: The Rise of Accidental Empires and Nerds 2.0.1.
Stephens' Cringely currently writes an online column for the PBS website called I, Cringely: The Pulpit, and has launched a new internet television show NerdTV. InfoWorld continues to print its Robert X. Cringely feature, Notes From the Field, with a new and unknown writer.
[edit]Stanford

Stephens earned a bachelor's degree from the College of Wooster in Ohio[1] in 1975.
In 1998, it was revealed[2][3] [4] that Stephens had falsely claimed to have received a Ph.D. from Stanford University and to have been employed as a professor there. Stanford's administration stated that while Stephens had been a teaching assistant and had pursued course work toward a doctoral degree, he had never held a professorship nor had he been awarded the degree. Stephens then stated that while he had received a master's degree from the department of communications and completed the classes and tests required for the Ph.D., he acknowledged that he failed to complete his dissertation. Asked about the resulting controversy, Stephens told a reporter: "[A] new fact has now become painfully clear to me: you don't say you have the Ph.D unless you REALLY have the Ph.D." [5]

Why no "iPod phone"? Apple obviously wanted to stir things up by changing the entire name of their next iPod by calling it "iPhone". Personally, I'd rather have an "iPod phone" than an "iPhone" anyway.

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